MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 A rare contract with an unusually lucrative bonus structure rewarding durability has finally paid off for Byron Buxton, netting the outfielder a $500,000 payday Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Nearly four years after he signed a pay-for-play, seven-year contract extension worth at least $100 million, the Minnesota Twins center fielder reached the first of several available performance bonuses with his 502nd plate appearance of the season.<\/p>\n
The two-time All-Star, who is as healthy as he\u2019s been since early in his career, reached 500 plate appearances when he led off for the Twins on Wednesday, the first time he\u2019s hit that mark since 2017. Buxton doubled in his second at-bat and earned a cool half million when he reached base on a fielder\u2019s choice in the fifth.<\/p>\n
Buxton finished 1-for-5 with a double in the 10-5 loss to the New York Yankees and has\u00a0now accrued 504 plate appearances.<\/p>\n
With 10 games left in the season, Buxton, who is batting .270\/.333\/.551 with 31 home runs and 24 stolen bases, could be in line for a profitable two months. He is eligible to earn another $500,000 if he reaches 533 plate appearances, and could receive between $3-8 million if he can garner enough votes to earn at least a 10th-place finish in the American League Most Valuable Player vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a joy to watch the guy play when you see someone work really hard for something, and deal with pain, and then come out on top, everything he\u2019s overcome,\u201d Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to end up meaning the most to Buck when the time comes and the season wraps up, what he\u2019s going to be most happy about. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be about any number. Maybe I\u2019m wrong. I think it\u2019s going to be just the fact that he woke up every day, showed up to the field and he was out there. That means way more to him than statistics because he loves to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Buxton signed the extension on Nov. 28, 2021, nobody knew if he\u2019d remain healthy enough to reach the lofty incentives included.<\/p>\n
At the time, Buxton was coming off an explosive all-around season in which injuries limited him to 61 games. When healthy in 2021, Buxton batted .306\/.358\/.647 in 254 plate appearances. He played at an MVP-caliber level, but stints on the injured list for a hip strain and broken hamate bone cost him nearly four months of games.<\/p>\n
Injuries were nothing new for Buxton, who only appeared in 215 of 546 possible games (39 percent) between 2018-2021.<\/p>\n
Seeing how Buxton could produce when healthy and understanding his desire to remain with the Twins, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and former general manager Thad Levine tried to find a solution before the outfielder entered his final season of club control. He was eligible for free agency after the 2022 season.<\/p>\n
Falvey, Levine and Buxton\u2019s representative, B.B. Abbott, found common ground on an extension that safeguarded the Twins from losing out if Buxton couldn\u2019t stay healthy, but rewarded him if he did.<\/p>\n
Buxton\u2019s extension also includes $500,000 bonuses for reaching 567, 600 and 625 plate appearances. If he finishes between sixth and 10th in the MVP race, Buxton earns $3 million, with an additional million added for each place from fifth and up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tried to be creative,\u201d Falvey said at the time. \u201cIn many ways, it\u2019s unprecedented. We know from an awards standpoint, some of the structure that provides the upside, we felt that was the right way to approach what was most important to\u00a0Byron.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buxton\u2019s main goals were to earn a nine-figure contract and do it in a place he wanted to play for the rest of his career. He found both with the Twins, an organization he\u2019s pledged to stay with multiple times this season, noting he\u2019d invoke his no-trade clause if the Twins presented him with a potential deal to ship him to another team.<\/p>\n
His future secured, Buxton has continued to deliver All-Star caliber play since signing \u2014 when he\u2019s healthy. Buxton has produced an .835 OPS in those four seasons.<\/p>\n
Nothing compares to Buxton\u2019s 2025 campaign, however. Sidelined for only\u00a011 games with a concussion in May and 13 with an injury to his rib cage in July and August, Buxton is producing like never before.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s achieved career-highs in runs, hits, triples, home runs and RBIs, with a good chance to also do so in at-bats, plate appearances and stolen bases. With 10\u00a0games to go, Buxton could also achieve his first 30-30 season.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s produced 4.9 WAR, according to Baseball Reference and Fangraphs. Buxton ranks eighth in the American League among position players in f-WAR and is tied for 11th in b-WAR.<\/p>\n
There was a brief scare in Tuesday\u2019s loss when New York Yankees third baseman Ryan McMahon stepped on his finger as Buxton stole third base. After several minutes of working with athletic trainer Nick Paparesta, Buxton \u2014 who is 24-for-24 in steal tries \u2014 stayed in the game. Doubling and scoring two runs after the close call, Buxton declared himself fine after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI finished the game, so we good,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cGotta keep moving. \u2026 It\u2019s hard to take me out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Informed that his next plate appearance was his 500th, Buxton expressed pride in the accomplishment he last achieved in his first full season. Before the current season, Buxton\u2019s career-high for plate appearances since 2017 was the 388 he made in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Five hundred is) a big number because that means you\u2019ve been on the field and you\u2019ve been in the lineup,\u201d Buxton said. \u201cI kind of look at it on that end of the scale. I\u2019ve been in the lineup, been able to post up every day, not DHing, and in center. That\u2019s a positive for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baldelli loves how the 2025 season is coming together for Buxton. He admits he wasn\u2019t sure Buxton could ever reach this point after his 2022 and 2023 seasons ended with right knee surgery, but credits the player\u2019s resilience for getting him here.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll play even when something\u2019s busted,\u201d Baldelli said. \u201cYou have to drag him off. That\u2019s how he\u2019s always been. The reason he hadn\u2019t played in games before is because it\u2019s impossible. If something is in two pieces, you\u2019re not going to be able to play. But pain doesn\u2019t keep him off the field. If he thinks he can keep going, he\u2019s going to keep going. That\u2019s just the way he\u2019s always been.\u00a0\u2026 He\u2019s tough as nails.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: Ellen Schmidt \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 A rare contract with an unusually lucrative bonus structure rewarding durability has finally paid off for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2326,363,99],"class_list":["post-165231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}